


Two names // Four dates

by Mipping, Ninjaninaiii



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Gen, M/M, at least there's a uh, but yeah alternate universe where newt and herc both lose a loved one, this one's a saddun guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 01:58:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2410757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mipping/pseuds/Mipping, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninjaninaiii/pseuds/Ninjaninaiii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The saddest coffeeshop au straight from the mouth of satan. A bunch of mipping's headcanons whipped into a killer oneshot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two names // Four dates

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mipping](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mipping/gifts).



 

Newt doesn't understand the question when it's asked.

"Hermann here thought it was a hilarious idea to puke, actually PUKE into the toilet bowl, I mean can you imagine that?" He's grinning, miming the motion at Tendo at the afterparty to end all afterparties. "It's just sitting there- on top of this  mountain  of trash and he runs, hobbles over it to it-" he stomps, lopsidedly, pulling his face into a scrunched imitation of his partner. His drift partner. He'd drifted with Hermann. They were drift compatible.

Tendo's face is concerned, and not in the 'dude-seriously-I'm-eating-here-could-you-not-mime-being-sick,'  way Newt had intended. 

"And then he was all like- 'BY JOVE' or was that before, no, that was before, he went 'BY JOVE', but after we were all 'WE FINISH EACH OTHER'S-' '-SANDWICHES!'" Newt has to admit, he's getting incredibly good at imitating Herm's voice. He can see Hermann out of the corner of his eye, cheeks flushing, brows furrowing.

"What Herms, not going to hit me?" Newt flinched, pre-emptively, narrowly escaping the aim of the killer cane. "Oh, so close but so far, old man!"

Tendo put down his drink.

"Newton. Brother." Tendo sounded scared. Newt wondered if the clock had started ticking again. He paused in trying to trip Hermann up and focused on the dapperness of the bow-tie. Tendo cleared his throat. "Will you walk with me for a while ?"

Newt looked around him, but no, his fellow party goers were still having the times of their lives. He shrugged. "Was starting to get bored of this place anyway. 's'later Herms, Tendo and I are gon' split this joint." He turned on his heel, waiting for Tendo to join him at his elbow. Hermann could amuse himself amongst the rabble for now; Newt had no doubts that he had some higher-up's every word to cling to.

They walked for a while through the abandoned maze that was the Shatterdome, Tendo seeming to have something on his mind and Newt not oblivious enough not to notice it, but  cautious enough not to mention it. Away from the main party, Newt started to regain his hearing a little.

They stopped once the silence become hypnotic . 

"This is the medical bay," Newt observed. Sudden panic. "Are you okay? " Perhaps Tendo had been harbouring a life-threatening disease all this time, maybe he was hit by shrapnel when they were watching the final showdown, maybe-

"Hermann is dead."

Newt is taken aback, but pushes his glasses up. "Uhm, no, unless he died in the last two minutes, he's still alive and kicking- or, well, I was doing the kicking back there but-"

He' s cut off from his preamble by Tendo's ultra-concerned look, times two.

"Do you remember how Hermann died?"

Newt doesn't understand the question.

Something within him churns, there's a burn of blue against his eyelids. Hermann is beside him.

"Ha! See? Not dead. Very definitely alive, and apparently bored of the party too! Decided to join us cool kids, huh,  Herms! How'd you manage to piss Tendo off enough for him to write you off as dead, this time?"

Hermann rolls his eyes, crosses his arms. Retorts that Tendo must be doing it because he doesn't understand how rad their drift was. They were drift compatible.

"Even Hermann thinks we're rad," Newt adds, mimicking the crossed-arms in a way he hopes makes them look like an awesome Jaeger pilot duo, fit to rock the front cover of a magazine. 

Tendo catches his eye and holds it. "Hermann Gottlieb did not survive the drift. He was unable to take the neural load." Newton scoffs, but Tendo silences him. " You survived, made your way to the Shatterdome in time to warn us that the plan would not work. You were alone."

Newt turns to Hermann, who looks a little weak on his feet, but yeah, nope, he's still there, admonishing the 'newsflash' and calling Tendo names. Newt laughs at a particularly spiteful one. He waits for Tendo's reply, acknowledgement of the epic slay.

Tendo is still looking at Newt.

"It's not going to work," Newt squints, trying to work out what game he's playing. "Mako tried convincing me that milk wasn't real once and I've learnt my lesson, okay. No more disbelieving in dairy produce for actual months."

Hermann whines about being compared to dairy products, but dude, he really was setting himself up for that one with the dark brown sweater  and the mammoth eyebags. It didn't help the contrast problem.

Tendo walks into the medical bay, so Newt and Hermann follow, if only because Newt's still not sure why they're here. Maybe Tendo's going to schedule him an MRI, bump the joke's credibility a bit. He's down with that, who doesn't like giant magnet machines. Try to outwit  _ this _neuroscientist, bitch.

Tendo walks past the man with the worst job in the world, giving Dr. Doctor-on-duty-during-the-apocalypse-cancelling-party a small nod of mutual respect. Newt was never one for going to the medical bay, always having preferred using his own tools of the trade when it came to injuries, so it was nice to explore the place a little.

The room they walk into is cold, and looks kind of like a fridge. Or a morgue.

They were in a morgue. 

His stomach  tells him that now would be the time to find a working lavatory.

Tendo picks up the clipboard from the metal table before him, scanning a list.

Newt checks to see if Hermann is warm enough. He's constantly jumpered, but he knows just how thin the material is, just how little the weather has to change before Hermann complains about his bones creaking in the cold wind. Hermann's donned his coat, has resolutely stuck his hands in his pockets.

"This should be interesting," Hermann says under his breath. Tendo doesn't look at him.

His Oxfords click nicely on the floor as he walks toward a wall of doors. He checks the label, then beckons Newt. Newt wonders what'll be in the box. Maybe one of the doctors, wearing a replica Hermann coat? Maybe a thundercracker. Maybe it'll be booby trapped like an Egyptian catacomb.

Tendo rolls the drawer out.

\---

Herc Hanson is the first person to ask Tendo where Newt is. Tendo tells him, but asks him, really petitions him, to maybe wait a couple of days. He needed to rest.

Herc tells him it's urgent. Tendo tells him not to comment on the jumper.

It is definitely Hermann's jumper Newton is using to cover up his tattoos. Herc wants that. He wants to use something he loved to cover up his mistakes.

"Dr. Geiszler," Herc says as a greeting, an apology, and a question. Tendo had told him that Newt could   be Hermann. Don't ask about the jumper.

"Newt," Newt replies, similar in tone. "You can sit, if you like," Newt says after a suitably awkward time in which neither knows how to proceed. Max strains at his leash, wanting the attention of the previously extra-doting Newt.

"Ta," Herc thanks. He hooks a stool and drags it closer to where Newt is sat at his desk, Max plomping down on his feet to keep them warm. He's remodelled, Herc realises. Newt has pushed both scientist's desks together, creating a ring of blackboards and lab-tables around it so that you could see everything in the room from the two desks in the centre. No more centre parting. He scratches the skin on his left hand. It's long since been rubbed raw.

"I wanted to ask you a favour," Herc starts. He doesn't remember ever being alone in a room with the biologist before, let alone holding conversation with him.

Newt is obviously thinking the same, suddenly raising his eyes with shock. "No more drifts." His tone is final. Newton will never drift again. He's done enough damage.

"No, no, not- nothing like that. Ever." Herc doesn't think he'll ever drift again, either.

Newt nods, wary. Herc carries on. 

"I... " Herc didn't know how much of a sore spot he was going to hit, but he needed someone to know. He needed someone to tell him how stupid he'd been. He felt vulnerable. He held out his arms, stretching so that Newt could see. On his left wrist is a name and a pair of dates. On his right is a name . "I tempted fate, I know I did, I should have had his name removed when my wife died, but I couldn't bring myself to-"

His left wrist he'd had tattoo'd with his wife's name the night before they'd been married. It was his bachelor's party, and he'd been in love. He'd had Chuck's name printed in matching font  the day before the baby boy had been Christened. He felt like he deserved the pain when his wife died. He added her birth and death dates two days after the Kaiju had attacked. It'd been two days since the end of the world. He deserved the pain.

"I don't know anywhere in Hong Kong, and I'm running out of time. It's a tradition, and- I need it to be good. I need it to hurt." He looks Newt in the eye and he can feel that he understands. Newt pulls on his jumper, trying to cover the colour.

They travel to the shop together. When Newton takes off his shirt, Herc glances, always having been  curious. Newt's whole torso is covered  but for the space above his heart. The artist is pleased she finally gets to finish off the design. She asks what he wants.

"A name and two dates."

Their memorials are matching and complete. 

\----

Neither Herc nor Newt  ever  manage to  leave Hong Kong. They always make plans, they both agree with Raleigh when he jokes that they'd be the first to find some mansion to live in. They all saved the world. They all lost their world.

Newt finds a coffee shop has opened in the alley where Hermann died. They're hiring. He's hired.

Herc finds an apartment to rent that's perfect  and buys it on the spot. It has two bedrooms. He asks his son which he'd prefer. He stops in the kitchen and thinks about selling it.

\---

They live close enough, but only meet up once a year. They meet up two days after the anniversary and sit in Newt's café and they don't talk. They sit in each other's company and think about what could have been. What they should have done differently. How they could've saved them. They grieve. They have long lives, now. Long lives to live with the knowledge that it was their fault. They were responsible.

They don't talk. 

\---

Herc comes to the anniversary alone. Max had died that year. It's the first year he is properly, completely alone. They sit in the silence and he bites his lip. Newt takes off his glasses and Herc tries to get rid of the lump in his throat by massaging it. He feels his nose start to run so he sniffs. It gets caught in his throat. They don't cry. They sit in the silence and they don't talk. 

\---

Newt can still hear Hermann's voice sometimes, see him out the corner of his eye. He imagines what would have happened if he'd checked the wiring one more time, or if he hadn't had been in love with him. If he'd hated him as a proper nemesis should have, he wouldn't have allowed the mathematician anywhere near the machine, let alone join him within it.

He'd wanted to show Hermann his grandest ideas; the ones he couldn't put into words but were so vibrant in his mind. He'd wanted to see how Hermann saw numbers. H e wanted to see how Hermann saw him. 

He wondered if Hermann realised, in his final moments, what he meant to Newton. He wondered if Hermann died disgusted or relieved. Perhaps he died with the regret Newt felt so strongly now. They'd always had so much time, Newt thought. They would stop the apocalypse and they'd throw a huge party and they'd kiss and be merry and throw entrails at one another at the wedding.

Hermann wasn't supposed to die. They were supposed to die together, or not at all. Wasn't that their agreement? This was Hermann getting the last laugh, once again. Newt wanted another apocalypse to occupy him. He made coffee for people who didn't recognise him and replayed Hermann's death in his mind.

\---

Every month, an anonymous donation is made to a local food bank. The donation is always the same: three boxes of  leading brand children's cereal and  a six-pack of tins of dog food. Herc realises that Newt isn't the only one with two minds still in one brain. They may not have died connected, but connected they remained. He would always be in the same spot in the kitchen when he reached into the paper bag.

Chuck had always be incessant when he was a kid about buying the shark-shaped cereal that contained more sugar than a stick of rock and more chemicals than polluted the sea. Herc could see, even now, clear as day  where Chuck had kept his secret stash in his bunk in the Shatterdome. 

It wasn't the only thing Chuck had stashed away.

After the Apocalypse, Herc had been in charge of making sure the end was truly the end. He watched Raleigh and Mako carry on. He watched Tendo and his team carry on. He watched Newt pick up what was left of himself and carry on. He was in charge of so many futures that  carried on. Everyone carried on and nobody knew about Chuck. Nobody knew about Chuck at all.

Herc watched Raleigh a lot, after that. Chuck had never admitted it, but he had never needed to. He'd admired Raleigh when he was a teen. He had had a poster of him in his room. He'd taken it down when Yancy had died. Herc had seen all of the possible futures his boy had dreamt.  Chuck had hated himself for thinking he could replace his hero's brother. Had hated himself for knowing he wanted to be more than a brother. Hated so much and so vividly to protect his secret. He hated in order  to protect himself.

He got good at hating.

Herc kept a box of cereal on his shelf, just in case.


End file.
